Task force putting brakes on car thieves
by Heidi Rowley on May. 31, 2006, under LocalInvestigations, surveillance help cut theft rate here
Detective Richard Rosler checks for fingerprints a Honda CRX reported stolen 30 hours earlier. It was found in the parking lot of the Tierra Palms Apartments, 6420 S. Camino de la Tierra.
Each day, an average of 16 vehicles are stolen in Tucson.
But a new effort by a multiagency task force is making an impact.
The Southern Arizona Auto Theft Task Force, one of six in the state, was responsible for 44 percent of all arrests for auto theft in Arizona last year, according to police statistics.
Changing its focus from simply recovering stolen vehicles to investigations and surveillance has made the difference, said Tucson police Sgt. David Azuelo, 45, who took over the operation in February 2004.
“It took the officers’ jobs from going out and locating stolen cars and simply recovering them to becoming more proactive and going after known violators who, if we went after them, wouldn’t be stealing cars,” Azuelo said. “One prolific auto thief can have such a glaring effect on our community.”
On Thursday, the task force arrested Freddy Garcia, 26, of the 2400 block of North Walnut Avenue, who they believe is connected to dozens of auto thefts. Azuelo said they are waiting for fingerprint results to determine the exact number of auto thefts they can connect him with.
Garcia is in the Pima County Jail on $100,000 bail and charged with three counts of third-degree burglary, four counts of auto theft, two counts of unlawful flight from law enforcement and three counts of criminal damage.
Members of the task force, which is primarily funded by a 50-cent state auto insurance fee, routinely drive through motel and apartment parking lots looking for vehicles that look out of place and checking the license plates of the most commonly stolen vehicles, which are large pickup trucks, SUVs and older model Hondas and Toyotas.
In the past 15 months, the task force, which consists of three Tucson police officers and one Pima County sheriff’s deputy, arrested 187 people on suspicion of car theft and recovered 347 stolen vehicles valued at $4.2 million, Azuelo said.
Earlier this year the National Insurance Crime Bureau reported that Tucson dropped from the 13th-worst “Hot Spot” in the nation for auto thefts to 15th. So far this year, Azuelo said, auto thefts in Tucson have dropped more than 2 percent and he anticipates they will continue to drop as the task force arrests auto thieves and educates people on how to protect their vehicle from being stolen.
According to 2004 and 2005 statistics on auto theft, the summer months are huge for auto theft, jumping from an average of 470 a month in Tucson to 650 between April and July.
“We see a huge increase over the summer months and the only commonality is that juveniles are out of school,” Azuelo said.
Because stolen trucks, vans and SUVs are the primary means for transporting illegal immigrants to Tucson and Phoenix, the task force receives funding for border enforcement from Gov. Janet Napolitano, who has designated money to the Southern Arizona Vehicle Theft Enforcement Details. They often call on U.S. Border Patrol agents to pick up illegal immigrants found in stolen cars.
Last month, Tucson police officers Dan Spencer and Bill Ambrose drove down a dirt road near Avra Valley and some illegal immigrants jumped into their unmarked trucks thinking the officers were the scheduled smugglers. They were turned over to the Border Patrol.
The detail usually meets at least once per week at a designated spot between midnight and 3 a.m. During a detail early last week, Azuelo listed some areas that the Tucson Police Department had requested they visit. He asked the other members of the group if they wanted to visit those areas first or visit Avra Valley, known for its smuggling routes. The group decided to go to Avra Valley first, work its way down I-10 checking hotels and then visit the in-town addresses.
A total of 381 cars were reported stolen in May in Tucson. Most of those cars will never be seen again, and at least half of those thefts could have been prevented by locking the doors, not leaving the keys in the car and using a steering wheel lock, Azuelo said.
“I have not yet seen a vehicle stolen that had a steering wheel lock on,” he said.
Spencer, a member of the Southern Arizona Auto Theft Task Force, knows which types of vehicles will be targeted and works every day to recover them and arrest the offenders.
During a patrol on May 22, he ran the plates of a 2006 Dodge Ram parked in a motel parking lot off Interstate 10. The pickup wasn’t stolen, but the model is high on the list of targets of drug and human smugglers.
“He needs to get a Club,” Spencer said, referring to the steering wheel lock.
Because thieves often look for the easiest vehicle to steal, Azuelo said precautionary measures can make a big difference.
On May 16, the task force received an alert from OnStar, a vehicle security tracking system, concerning a stolen Hummer in the area of Speedway Boulevard and Sonoita Avenue. Moments later another alert came from OnStar about another vehicle in the same area. When officers arrived, they located a total of four stolen vehicles.
While they waited for a search warrant to enter the house, a suspect approached one of the vehicles. He was taken into custody and investigators found that he was in possession of the vehicle’s key.
Once a search warrant was served, the investigators found items from the vehicles inside the house and keys to other vehicles.
“In the end,” Azuelo said in a report, “there was no large conspiracy, just several juvenile delinquents that walked through an area checking unlocked vehicles to see if they had left their valet keys inside the glove compartments.”
The stolen vehicles were a 2005 Hummer H2, a 2005 Chevrolet Special Edition Tahoe, a 2003 Toyota Tacoma and a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo.
Sgt. David Azuelo, head of the Southern Arizona Auto Theft Task Force, checks the vehicle identification number of a truck parked at a motel off Interstate 10. The task force is helping reduce the number of auto thefts in Tucson by changing its focus from recovery to investigation of theft rings.
The Dodge Ram 1500 tops the list.
———
RELATED STORIES
TPD tips to prevent your car from being stolen
Stories from the Southern Arizona Auto Theft Detail
———
VEHICLES STOLEN MOST OFTEN IN 2005
1) Dodge Ram 1500
2) Honda Accord
3) Ford F-150 truck
4) Other Dodge truck series
5) Honda Civic
6) Chevy truck series
7) Jeep Cherokee
Dodge Intrepid
9) Ford F250
10) Dodge Neon
Source: Tucson Police Department
———
WHY VEHICLES ARE STOLEN
● Big business for drug and human smugglers
● Crime of opportunity, such as unlocked cars
● Taken to chop shops and resold for parts
● Used to facilitate other crimes like bank robberies, kidnapping, etc.
● A means of transportation
———
SIGNS THAT A CAR MIGHT BE STOLEN
● Abandoned on the far side of a parking lot or in the desert
● Backed into a parking space
● Door locks are “punched in” or broken
● Ignitions are broken
● Ignition that is covered up
● A vehicle that doesn’t fit in, such as a high-priced vehicle in a low-income area
● Foreign plates and 3-day temporary permits
———
WHO TO CALL
If you suspect a vehicle is stolen, have information about stolen vehicles or want a member of the task force to visit your apartment complex or business for a theft-prevention presentation, call Sgt. David Azuelo at 429-2471.
